Tech

HTC One Smartphone Makes Its Flagship Debut

During two simultaneous events held in New York and London on Tuesday, mobile manufacturer HTC has unveiled its latest flagship smartphone: The HTC One, which aims to take on fierce competitors such as the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy smartphones.

The Android 4.2 Jelly Bean-based device features a 4.7-inch full 1080p HD screen and touts a Gorilla Glass display. It is made completely of aluminum, with a "zero-gap" construction that seems to imply a unibody. Edges taper to less than 4mm, but is thicker overall.

The HTC One is fast too, thanks to its quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor and 2GB of RAM.

It will be available on AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint networks, and comes in silver and black. It will ship in March. Pricing has not yet been announced.

"People are snacking on a steady stream of information," said HTC president Jason MacKenzie, adding he saw a "massive opportunity" to take smartphones to a whole other level.

In line with this trend, the company has introduced a home screen concept called BlinkFeed, a Flipboard-like model which automatically updates with news and images about friends and the world, thanks to 1,400 content partners such as AP, MTV and ESPN. This means when users look at their home screen, the live feed is always moving.

The company also said the device has "a revolutionary new camera," with front and rear lenses which can be switched by swiping the screen. It also captures "ultrapixels" (an HTC term), even in low light. Pixels on the image sensor are larger, so performance is said to be greater.

In addition, a feature called HTC Zoe automatically captures HD video and photos at the same time. Similar to BlackBerry's StoryMaker, HTC Zoe takes videos and photos and creates highlight videos automatically.

The device also comes with front-facing stereo speakers, with one on the top of the phone and one on the bottom. Resembling strips and called BoomSound, they are positioned left to right in landscape mode.

The new music player connects to the cloud and a visualizer shows lyrics in real time with music. The device also features two microphones — each with dual membranes — supposedly captures "clear, high-quality" audio.

The HTC One also includes a nice perk for TV lovers — a universal remote control and mirroring app for easy channel flipping.

Rumors about the Android-based HTC One have been circulating for awhile, with leaked images and specs hitting the Internet in the days leading up to the launch.

The company hopes its model can take on competition from the Facebook and the much-anticipated arrival of the new Galaxy S smartphone, which will likely be announced in March.

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